James W. Loewen Keller Research Paper

Both Howard Zinn’s and James W. Loewen’s book show evidence to support W. E. B. DuBois statement that history loses it value when only one side of the story is told. James Loewen mentioned several historic figures in his book who are mostly recognized as heroes, such as Hellen Keller, Columbus, and Woodrow Wilson. These people’s inspiring stories are shown in traditional textbooks but seldom the story of failures. When it comes to nationwide historic events, due to many reasons, history textbooks tends to emphasize more on the successful ones. For most students, Hellen Keller was known as the lady that fought through his disabilities and a human rights activists, but that was only parts of her life. The adult life of Hellen Keller was not as inspiring as her childhood, therefore it is often not mentioned in textbooks. James W. Loewen wrote,
“A few know that Keller graduated from college. But about what happened next, about the whole of her adult life, they are ignorant. … The truth is that Helen Keller was a radical socialist. She joined the Socialist Party of Massachusetts in 1909. She had become a social radical even before she graduated from Radcliffe, and not, she …show more content…
Throughout elementary school and middle school there was always lessons on Hellen Kellers life, the teacher even showed a movie of Hellen Keller. We spent a quite a lot time studying on her but never knew about the part of her radical socialist life. The true history is to show people the story of the past without omitting or changing the truth. The example of how Hellen Keller is being portrayed in the textbooks is a good representation of what W. E. B. DuBois’s idea of history that does not tell the truth. Historic figures have their good sides and bad sides, and so does a nation. James. W. Loewen also wrote about the problem with the history of the United